Stay on target

Condoms come in all sizes, colors, flavors, and for-your-pleasure enhancements—perhaps none as pleasing as new self-lubrication.

Boston University researchers this week unveiled a new auto-greasing rubber they hope will help put an end to unplanned pregnancies and infections.

“Preventing the spread of HIV and other diseases is critically important,” study co-leader Mark Grinstaff said in a statement. “That really was the driving force for creating new technology here.”

The contraceptive hasn’t actually been … run up the flagpole just yet.

Instead, the team conducted a “touch test,” in which people felt and compared a standard, non-lubricated latex condom; a standard condom with personal lubricant applied; and a self-lubricated condom.

Eighty-five percent of participants found that Grinstaff’s was the “most slippery to the touch.”

“People found that to be an attractive feature,” the chemistry and biomedical engineering professor said. “Those in our survey who don’t typically use a condom said they would consider using [one] if it stayed slippery like this.”

Condoms as a method for preventing sexually transmitted infections have been used since at least 1564; they are on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, and regularly sell about six to nine billion each year.

But poor lubrication, according to WHO and the National Institutes of Health, have been putting people off of the barrier devices for years.

It took more than three years of research and testing nearly 1,000 formulations for Grinstaff & Co. to find a winning combination of latex and lubricant (the title of Charlie Sheen’s memoir).

To the naked eye, BU’s prototype looks like a typical male latex condom.

On its surface, though, are polymers that capture moisture from water and bodily fluids, trapping liquids on the prophylactic for a consistently slippery sensation.

Which, Grinstaff hopes, will help people forget objections to traditional condoms that can create too much friction, reduce pleasure, and cause discomfort.